For GOP, Sunday morning tea talk

A handful of Republican rising stars took to the Sunday morning talk shows in a victory lap after Tuesday's midterm elections but found themselves in debates over the merits and future of the tea party movement.

After Tuesday's victory, the Republican Party is still unsure of how to manage its tenuous marriage to the tea party movement, which was a significant factor in elections all year long, as it prepares for the arrival in Washington of a broad slate of anti-establishment members to join the ranks in January.

Story Continued Below

Even Sen. Jim DeMint, the South Carolina Republican who has called on newly elected tea party candidates to buck GOP leadership in pursuit of their principles, said that the tea party will "hardly" be running the show in the next Congress.

"They made a huge difference in this election," DeMint said, but "they are just a part of the awakening of the American people, the citizen activism that's realigning politics in America today."

And Pat Toomey, who beat back Democrat Joe Sestak's White House-backed bid for the open Pennsylvania Senate seat, cautiously praised the tea party movement but would not commit to caucusing with the tea party when he arrives in the Senate in 2011.

"I have very broad support from the tea party movement, and I appreciate that support," Toomey said on CNN's "State of the Union." But he added that he needs more details about what caucusing with the tea party "would be all about."

Tuesday's results also provided a mixed message for Republicans: Tea party candidates may have powered a wave in the House, but some believe its weak and offbeat candidates may have cost the GOP the Senate.

New Castle County Executive Chris Coons's easy victory over insurgent tea party candidate Christine O'Donnell in Delaware was a direct consequence of one of the riskiest tea party endorsements this cycle. On Sunday's "Meet the Press," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie called it a "missed opportunity."

"I think Delaware was a missed opportunity to have a really good United States senator in Mike Castle. And that's why I endorsed him in the primary," Christie said of the longtime Republican congressman and former two-term governor.

In Nevada, Sharron Angle was endorsed by the tea party but narrowly failed to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and some believe the party would have been better served by a stronger candidate in an otherwise favorable climate. The same was true in Colorado, where Ken Buck was unable to unseat incumbent Democrat Michael Bennet.